Karen Flower

Hi, I’m Karen and I’ve been shooting weddings in and around London and Surrey for eight years. Like a lot of wedding photographers, I started off with shooting a friend’s wedding and to do this I realised I needed a better camera and bought myself a Nikon D3S. It was a sizeable investment, so I thought I’d better make a decent go of this to pay for the camera and new lenses.

Turns out I loved photographing people at weddings and doing it in as unobtrusive a way as possible. The following year, 2012, was my first year of full-time weddings.

I loved my Nikons and ended up owning every possible focal length lens over the years. The change in systems came when I started having back and shoulder pain, the over shoulder holsters weren’t helping either, and I knew I needed to change how I worked and what I used.

Switching to Sony in 2017, after shooting weddings for many years, made me super excited all over again. The new A9 and 35mm arrived a few days before a wedding that summer so I took it along with my Nikon kit and ended up using it for 80% of the day.

I haven’t looked back and made the full switch six months later. I love the flexibility of the Sony cameras: live view, flip screen, silent shutter, eye af, and lightweight body are what won me over. I now have quite a stripped back set of kit, which I love.

For weddings where space is limited, I’ll use a 25/55mm combo for most of the day with the 85mm for portraits. The 25/55mm is so neat and unobtrusive: Couple that with being able to hold the cameras away from my face and even use eye af means I can get really discreet shots that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.

Whatever I start the day off using, my other two lenses are always in my Shoot Sac along with snacks, a Godox 350s flash, a water bottle, and other paraphernalia. And before you ask, I’ve never missed the slot in my Spider Holster or dropped the camera! I’ve also probably jinxed myself now.

Being able to photograph weddings for a living is a pleasure and a privilege. But it’s also business and that takes hard work and commitment. Just stay curious and creative, find the joy in each job, put the work in, especially with marketing, and make your couples happy. Have an amazing 2020!